The President of the Republic received the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom

The President of the Republic, Mr Nicos Anastasiades, received today, at the Presidential Palace, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Cyprus, Mr Mathew Kidd.

After the meeting Mr Kidd invited to say whether the meeting took place in light of the upcoming Mont Pelerin meeting between the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, told reporters that “I think there is a real opportunity to build on the progress that was made last week and to reach conclusions on the agenda for that, which will open the way towards the multi-party event which we are all hoping can be achieved within this year as the leaders have said they want.”

Asked about the position of London with regard to a multilateral event, he said that “we are ready to support it. We very much hope it can work and we will be looking to the leaders to explain to us how they want us to play our part to be as positive as we can.”

Replying to a question Mr Kidd said that the President “is starting to think about that, but at the moment, not surprisingly, his focus is very much on the next few days and if that goes well then I guess that the contacts will start to focus attention on the next stage. And at that point I think we will have further conversations and further clarity about how we can play our part.”

Asked if he is optimistic following his meeting with the President, Mr Kidd said that “I think their opportunity is to do that. It sounds to me from what I have heard as though they made a lot of progress last week and they are in the stage where one last burst of activity can really settle that which is really good. And I guess they wouldn’t have agreed to go back this weekend if they did not think so too.”